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New Braunfels Herald Zeitung (Newspaper) - June 9, 2011, New Braunfels, Texas
10 I Thursday, June 9, 2011 | herald-zeitung.COM
Nowitzki gets healthy for Game 5
DALLAS (AP)
Dirk Nowitzki went home from his latest dramatic performance in the NBA finals, took a shower then slurped some chicken soup and hot tea. After a good night's rest, he returned to work Weones-day still dealing with a slight temperature and the sniffles, so he t(K)k it easy.
For a few hours.
Nowitzki said he was planning to he back in the gym later Wednesday to put up some shots and "at least get the body used to sweating a little bit."
With only two or three games left this postseason, Nowitzki figures he will soon have plenty of time to deal with a sinus infection and everything else that ails him. So he's determined to put whatever energy he has left into getting the two wins he and the Dallas Mavericks need to become NBA champions for the first time.
"At this stage, after playing eight, nine months on a high level ... nobody is completely healthy," Nowitzki said. "So it's time to fight through some stuff."
Nowitzlci is fighting as hard as anyone.
He tore the tendon at the tip of his left middle finger during Game 1, then led a winning rally at the end of Game 2, even scoring two
File photo
Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki (41) is fighting through a sinus infection that saw him play Tuesday with a slight temperature.
of his final three baskets using his wounded hand. He scored Dallas' final 12 points in Game 3, but missed his final shot at the buzzer when he could've forced overtime.
The morning of Game 4, he showed up for a shootaround
"looking like a ghost," said Donnie Nelson, the team's president of basketball operations. Club officials sent him to the locker room, then to his house with all sorts of medicine.
Before the game, no one knew what to expect. Of course Now
itzki was going to try playing. But how long would he last? How good would he be?
All seemed well when Nowitzki opened the game by hitting three straight shots. Then he missed 10 of 11. He also misfired on a free throw, ending his second run of 39 in a row this postseason.
By then, the secret about Now-itzki's illness was out. He was wheezing, coughing and doing all he could to fight the effects of a 101-degree fever.
Nowitzki scored 10 of his 21 points and grabbed five of his 11 rebounds while the Mavs pulled off another late comeback, erasing a nine-point deficit with 10:12 left. This rally kept them from falling into the black hole of a 3-1 deficit, instead putting them right back in the thick of things at 2-2.
Comparisons instantly were made to Michael Jordan scoring 38 points in Game 5 of the 1997 finals while battling a fever of 103.
Nowitzki has plenty of company on the injured list.
Backup center Brendan Haywood lasted only three minutes in Game 4 because of a hip injury that kept him out the previous game. He said Wednesday "we'll see" when asked about his chances of playing in Game 5.
NFL, players meet for a second day in New York
Sooners don’t want USC’s vacated title
NEW YORK (AP)
NFL owners and players have met for a second straight day in New York, with Judge Arthur Boylan joining Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA chief DeMaurice Smith.
The league and the players association issued a joint statement Wednesday saying the "confidential discussions" are part of ongoing mediation and are "expected to continue" in the near future.
It is the second time in a week that the sides got together. Last week, they
met near Chicago, then headed to the federal appeals court in St. Louis to argue the legality of the lockout, which began Marcii 12 and remains in force.
A person familiar with the talks said the owners and players will meet again "soon and often. That means in the near future, not in a month or anything like that."
Goodell told Buccaneers ticket holders Wednesday that "any time we're talking that's a positive because I believe both sides want to find solutions."
By JEFF LATZKE
AP College Football Writer
TULSA, Okla. (AP)
Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops won't be laying claim to the BCS championship that Southern California won after beating the Sooners in the 2005 Orange Bowl but had to vacate this week.
Stoops said Wednesday night that the Sooners are "not claiming any championships" after the BCS stripped the Tro
jans of their national title for NCAA rules infractions involving extra benefits received by star Reggie Bush.
Oklahoma was undefeated until meeting USC in the Orange Bowl but got blown out 55-19. Auburn and Utah also finished that season unbeaten.
Southern Cal will retain the title it won from The Associated Press that season.
► FINALS NOTEBOOK
Heat-Mavs having one of closest Finals ever
DALLAS (AP)
The Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat keep taking their NBA finals games down to the final minute. The difference in the last three games has been a single shot, with each decided three points or less.
"It's just a slugfest right now," Heat forward Chris Bosh said Wednesday.
And a rarity- Bosh
There have been only two other NBA finals where three consecutive games were decided by no more than three points. And those were back in
1947 and 1948 — the first championship series ever played.
Dallas won 86-83 on Tuesday night to even this series at two games apiece. Game 5 is today at 8 p.m. on ABC in Dallas before the series shifts back to Miami.
The Heat had won Game 3 88-86 after the Mavericks' 95-93 victory in Game 2.
When the Philadelphia Warriors won the first championship series in 1947, the final three games were decided by a combined seven points. There were three more close games in the middle of the
1948 series that the Warriors lost to the Baltimore Bullets.
If the Heat and Mavs have another game this series decided by three points or less — and they have at least two more chances, maybe three — it would be only the third NBA finals to have four such games.
Pick up the Comal County Business Journal, published the second Saturday of each month in the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung and on www.herald-zeitung.com.For all your local business news.
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